More naughty than nice
More and more millennials are turning to a new wave of greeting cards to say what Twitter and Facebook can’t
In vibrant type, on card stock sometimes thick enough to hold up to teeth marks, are printed the types of things usually reserved for text messages (or some similarly ephemeral form of communication): “I can’t wait to sob uncontrollably at your wedding!!!!!!!!!!” “You’re so gangsta.” “Only a few more shopping days left until your loved ones find out how little you understand them.”
Whatever happened to a simple “Season’s Greetings”?
Over the last few years, as “happy birthday” wishes have funnelled through Facebook and the kissy-face emoji has smacked across smartphone screens, a new breed of greeting cards has emerged, more cheeky than anything with a Hallmark stamp.
According to the Greeting Card Association, which tracks the sale of cards in the US, approximately 60% of millennials have bought a greeting card in the last year.
While the organisation does not report what brands different demographics are buying, the prints coming from upstarts like Offensive & Delightful, Emily McDowell Studio, Sapling Press and others seem to be directly addressing this younger generation — or, at least, the internet-irreverent, uninterested in boilerplate sentiments expressed in shiny script.
“Ninety percent of all the cards are, ‘I love you, sunshine, sparkle, sparkle, unicorn’,” said Olga Krigman, a Los Angeles graphic designer who started Offensive & Delightful in 2005. “I just wanted a card that was like, ‘Ugh’,” — she added one of her favourite four-letter words for emphasis — “something that’s for me.”
True to her brand’s name, many of Krigman’s cards include profanity, which means that some stores stock them in a box behind the register. But Offensive & Delightful relies more on mixing the nostalgic with the here-and-now — Norman Rockwell-esque girls praising the holy trinity of “booze, boys and bffs” — than shock value.
“It’s a little bit of the old with a little bit of the subversive,” Krigman said.
Others subvert the notion of making a card for an occasion, printing non sequiturs and one-liners sourced from social media. Lisa Krowinski, the founder of the five-year-old Pittsburgh company Sapling Press, favours a witty aside on the front and no message inside — as she put it, “a card to give someone for no reason other than to make them chuckle”.
Scrolling through Twitter and Instagram for inspiration sometimes
leads to collaborations with people on those platforms, like comedian Josh Hara, who along with Krowinski came up with cards that read: “Middle age is mostly getting super excited about different flavours of hummus” and “You know who wants to hear your opinion about everything? EVERYONE. — Alcohol.”
“We’ve had some shops contact us, like, ‘Why would you send that to somebody? What’s the purpose?’,” Krowinski said (dubiousness aside, more than 700 stores carry her cards). “It could be for anything. We hope that you purchase a card, it makes somebody laugh and inside what you’re saying is, ‘Best luck on whatever it is you’re going through’, versus Hallmark, where you get a card and the inside is a paragraph long that’s meant to tug the heartstrings and you just sign your name.”
Many cards try to acknowledge the inexpressible, like relationships that defy standard definitions.
In 2012, Los Angeles graphic designer Emily McDowell created a Valentine’s Day greeting that reads like a text message desperate to be unsent: “I know we’re not, like, together or anything but it felt weird to just not say anything so I got you this card. It’s not a big deal. It doesn’t really mean anything. There isn’t even a heart on it. So basically it’s a card saying hi. Forget it.”
Etsy featured the card on its Facebook page, and McDowell sold 1,700 in one week. She now produces a lot of cards like that.
“It’s cards for the relationships that we have and not what we wish we had,” she said.
McDowell, who at 24 was given a diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma, also pioneered a line of empathy cards that say more than a simple “sorry”. (“Please let me be the first to punch the next person who tells you everything happens for a reason,” one reads.)
“I drew a lot on my own experience,” she said. “When someone close to you is really sick or someone dies, you don’t just want to send a text or Facebook message or email. You want to be able to reach out.”
Another growth area: celebrations of samesex couples. Ladyfingers Letterpress in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has a collection of cards for those getting married or expecting a baby. “Congrats on your bun in the freezer!” reads one that features a smiling test tube and “Hi moms!”
Morgan Calderini, a printmaker, and Arley Torsone, a designer, started the company after their 2011 wedding, seeing a lack of cards and invitations appropriate for couples like them.
“All these contracts from vendors said ‘bride and groom’ when they could’ve said ‘engaged couple’,” Calderini said. “We felt an immediate need to step into the industry and redefine the language.” They are mocking up cards for people going through gender transitions and their loved ones, with messages like: “Labels are for cereal. I love you for who you are!”
New-age card makers task themselves with tackling awkward situations. Farewell Paperie, a Seattle company, produces snarky syrup for life’s lemons, like a lightsaber-adorned card that reads: “May the divorce be with you.”
“We asked ourselves, ‘Is this what you want to get when you get divorced? Does this feel too irreverent?’,” said Jen Pham-Corbett, who started Farewell Paperie with Lisa G. Towns, whom she met when working at an advertising agency. “But people have actually responded really well to it.”
Though Farewell Paperie prints its cards on presses more than 50 and 100 years old (named Helga and Bill, respectively), the messages frequently invoke pop culture. Best sellers include “You’re the Amy Poehler to my Tina Fey” and “Netflix makes the heart grow fonder”.
“We thought we were a natural for a 20-something, younger audience, but we’ll be surprised,” Pham-Corbett said. “Older ladies will say, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to get that ‘Cheers, bitches’ for one of my friends!’.” (That phrase is actually adorned on a cocktail napkin, which Farewell Paperie also produces.)
One cannot rely upon ribald greeting cards alone to pay the bills, however, and so Sapling Press has added a line of journals, while Offensive & Delightful does gift wrap. Emily McDowell Studio sells mugs and tote bags, and Ladyfingers Letterpress makes wine sleeves and drink tags.
Krowinski, of Sapling Press, said that the products are a way to preserve the very human sentiments that otherwise might get lost in the mists of pixels.
“Nobody has a shoebox of tweets or printedout text messages,” she said. “People still keep this stuff. It still means something.”